Video and still pictures are components of many social networking services, and are used as vehicles to enrich the experience of the participants. Business networking, teambuilding/leadership training, and dating services are some of the more popular forms of the type of activity that is now being defined generically as “social networking services.” Social networking services are performed in so-called “brick and mortar” (i.e., live) settings, but increasingly on or via popular web sites available through the World Wide Web (sometimes referred to as part of “Web 2.0”) as well.
In typical dating social networking services, existing use of video is usually confined to simple one-to-one single or bidirectional streaming of either live or stored content. In business environments, video conferencing (many-to-many) is more popular, but is limited in its effectiveness. A common video conferencing model shows, for example, an entire conference room, or individual heads (live or stored/static head-shot), plus training a camera on a shared work surface (a “talking heads” model). There are some other approaches that use audio interaction to allow users to create and play word games as a way for further relationship exploration.
All of these various services share common drawbacks and suffer from unique problems based on technological limitations, which, in turn, limit the effectiveness of the services and/or user satisfaction therewith.